


And a bit of conversation

by argentumlupine



Series: Fall ficlets 2012 [2]
Category: Bandom, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Podfic Available
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-09
Updated: 2012-11-09
Packaged: 2017-11-18 06:42:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/558026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/argentumlupine/pseuds/argentumlupine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gerard needs to pass Spanish or he won't graduate from college. He should probably find a tutor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And a bit of conversation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [akamine_chan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/akamine_chan/gifts).



> Aka, why are your prompts so tempting? I almost didn't write this one because I haven't had Spanish in a long, long time, but the prompt was too sweet to pass up. So here we go.
> 
> Thank you, [Ande](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Ande) and [Luce](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucifuge5) for the beta. EXTRA SPECIAL thanks to Luce for correcting my Spanish and suggesting the TV shows.

Gerard slams shut his Spanish textbook, folds his arms on top of it, puts his head down, and sighs dramatically. “I’m never going to learn this.”

Matt doesn’t even look up from where he’s sprawled on the floor with his own studying. “So drop the class.”

“I can’t. I need it to graduate, and if I put it off until next year I’ll forget _everything_.”

Matt shrugs. “So get a tutor. That’s how I made it through.”

Gerard makes a face. “Oh.” It’s something that never occurred to him before, but it seems so obvious now.

Matt gets up and grabs his phone. “I probably have my tutor’s number… here it is.” He holds the phone out to Gerard. “Ray’s cool. Tell him I said hi.”

Gerard flips open his textbook and scribbles Ray’s number on the inside cover. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Matt shrugs and settles back down on the floor. “But you’re not allowed to complain about Spanish again.”

\--

Gerard meets Ray at the campus bookstore the next day. “Thank you so much,” he says when he sits down.

Ray laughs. “There are worse ways to earn money. What are you having trouble with? Reading, writing, speaking? Vocabulary? Grammar?”

“Everything.”

“Okay. Do you at least have the basics?”

_“¿Cómo estás? ¿Qué hora es? ¿Dónde está el baño?”_ Gerard says. “I’ve got the _basic_ basics, but once you throw in verb tenses, it all gets scrambled in my head.”

“I can work with that.” Ray studies Gerard for a moment. “Maybe you just need context. What are you interested in?”

So they spend the rest of the afternoon talking about things. Finally, Ray sits back. “Okay,” he says. “I have some ideas. Let’s talk homework.”

“…Okay?”

“I want you to watch a movie you know well, muted, with Spanish subtitles.”

“And?”

“You’ll figure it out,” Ray says. “See you on Thursday.”

Gerard waves weakly as Ray leaves. _What_ was he getting himself into?

\--

Gerard keeps pausing and rewinding, trying to make sense of the action. Eventually he grabs some paper and starts scribbling down notes and translations. He’s only halfway through the movie when Matt gets back from class.

“Oh, dude, I remember this homework. Drove me crazy,” Matt says, and flops down on his bed. “Frustrated yet?”

“Yes,” Gerard mutters, staring at the screen and fighting the urge to look up three of the words. He knows these words. He _does_.

“It only gets worse from here, trust me. But you’ll learn.”

Gerard sighs and opens his Spanish-English dictionary.

\--

_Learning Spanish the Ray Toro way_ is in turns great fun and awful torture. Ray has Gerard watch a short _telenovela_ , first writing down dialogue, then translating to English, then guessing the next line. They also watch countless episodes of _Plaza Sésamo_ , _El Chavo del Ocho_ , and _Chespirito_. In between, they have conversations about music, Ray patiently listening to Gerard stumble through “how awesome Iron Maiden would sound in Spanish,” offering suggestions when Gerard gestures wildly in frustration. Both of them get a kick out of Gerard drawing comics based off Spanish phrases.

But the best thing is when Ray brings his guitar and they make up memory songs, because if it’s done through music? Gerard will remember it. (And so what if they get incredibly off topic and talk guitar and Gerard encourages Ray to play lots of different songs just because? Ray is amazing. And has these _hands_ that Gerard _cannot_ let himself think about for too long because NOPE NO PERVING ON HIS TUTOR.)

All the tutoring is paying off in class, too. Instead of sitting there completely confused and silent, Gerard finds himself speaking up because he _knows_ this stuff. He aces a speaking exam and only makes a few mistakes on the next written one.

\--

Gerard is bored. So bored. Matt’s out somewhere, and there’s nothing on TV, and Gerard has done all his school work, and Mikey’s not answering his phone, and Gerard has already read everything he owns multiple times, and the internet is down of-fucking-course, and Gerard is _bored_.

So when his phone rings he practically lunges for it, not even bothering to check the caller ID before he answers. “Hello?”

“Hey. Remember that band we were talking about on Tuesday?” Ray asks.

Gerard pauses. They talked about a number of bands on Tuesday. “Yes,” he hedges.

“I just found out they’re playing a show tonight. You wanna go?”

“Sure,” Gerard says, smothering his impulse to yell YES YES SAVE ME FROM MY BOREDOM RAY YOU ARE MY HERO.

So Gerard and Ray see this band that is great, who are followed by headliners who are awful, and they leave in the middle of that set to go hang out in a coffee shop and talk for a long time. It’s a great Saturday night, and Gerard feels a little sheepish that it hadn’t occurred to him to call Ray sooner. (And a little sad that they haven’t declared this a date because it kind of feels like one and kissing Ray seems like it would be great. Is Ray into guys? They haven’t talked about girls or guys. Gerard has no idea. And he’s obsessing and really should stop before he makes himself crazy.)

Next time he’ll call Ray first. Definitely.

\--

And so a few weekends later, when Gerard is trying not to have a why-did-I-leave-this-term-paper-so-late meltdown and is looking for stress relief, he calls Ray first.

“Hey, are you busy?”

“Not especially,” Ray says. Gerard hears the thump of something—maybe a textbook. “Why?”

“You want to go to a movie? I need a break.”

“Sure.”

They hit the dollar theater, and the movie they see is so bad they have a whispered conversation about walking out vs. staying—except the other people in the theater leave first, so once Gerard and Ray are alone they criticize the acting and special effects and action, loudly, and it ends up being the best $2 Gerard ever spent.

As they leave the theater, Ray says, “I want coffee. Do you want coffee?”

To which Gerard replies, “I always want coffee.”

“Cool, come on.”

So they go to this tiny café nearby and at first Gerard has an _oh shit_ moment when no one is speaking English, but then he realizes that he understands enough of the conversation to answer in Spanish. He gets some laughs when he gropes for a word and uses the wrong one, but Ray helps him out and everyone is really nice about it.

He and Ray sit down with their coffee and pick apart everything that was wrong with the movie, from the sad lack of music (“I know it’s set in space, but movie music is necessary!” “Right? And what they did have was just… uninspired.”) to the costuming (“That guy’s armor was just a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costume spray-painted black.” “And why was the only woman in the film almost naked? She’s supposed to be in the military!”) to the aliens (“We have CGI and animatronics. Why are aliens always human-shaped?”) to the languages (“They didn’t even _try_ to explain how the aliens are _conveniently_ speaking Standard!” “Especially since those aliens didn’t even have mouths that could create those sounds.”).

Gerard isn’t even paying attention when the server brings them their coffee and asks if she can bring them anything else, just looks up and answers her in Spanish and goes right back to talking to Ray. And then he stops short when he realizes what he just did.

“You are the best tutor ever,” Gerard says.

Ray grins at him. “I know.”

They leave soon after because Gerard looks at the time and realizes that he’s spent six hours on this study break.

“I should probably get back to work on my paper,” he says, frowning.

Ray nods and follows him out. They’re most of the way back to the dorms when Ray stops. Gerard looks back at him. “What’s up?”

_“¿Te puedo besar?”_ Ray asks, looking shy.

Gerard steps closer. _“Yo quería a pedir misma pregunta.”_

_“Yo quería preguntarte lo mismo,”_ Ray corrects.

Gerard huffs. “Fine, I wanted to ask you the same—mmph,” Gerard says, and Ray cuts him off with a kiss.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] And a bit of conversation](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2759774) by [Readbyanalise010](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Readbyanalise010/pseuds/Readbyanalise010)




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